Title: The Order of Melchizedek Author: Francis Myles Publisher: Word and Spirit Books (2010) ISBN: 978-1-61623-320-4
FRANCIS Myles’ offering, The Order of Melchizedek, recalibrates some of the rituals that have defined the Christian faith for centuries. Rightfully so, it carries a warning on the front cover — “The book contains highly sensitive material which the devil and religious institutions do not want you to hear!”
Whether it is the spiritual discipline of tithing or Holy Communion, or the church in the marketplace, all the religious traditions you have become used to, and comfortable with, are shaken to their very foundation and knocked to the ground in spectacular fashion because Myles takes no prisoners in delivering his “revelations”.
In this review, however, allow me to particularly focus on the subject of tithing. Tithing is a very controversial subject in the body of Christ today, and one of the reasons is that is has been defined as a gateway to riches for the believer, if not the “man of God”. Believers across the globe therefore continue to tithe, and tithe, and tithe, in the hope of grabbing hold of those elusive riches. But if the truth be told, very few ever get to see, let alone enjoy, those riches this side of heaven despite their consistent tithing. The major question remains: why is it that so many Christians who faithfully tithe never get to enjoy the promised fruits?
Myles disabuses believers of such a notion in the chapter titled, ‘Abram Meets Melchizedek’. While many churches teach that Abraham introduced tithing before the advent of the law, they go on to extract tithes under the paradigm captured in Malachi Chapter 3, which was specifically addressed to priests operating under the law of Moses.
This book primarily addresses a spiritual priestly order introduced by Jesus Christ, transitioning from the Old Testament Levitical priestly order introduced through Aaron the brother of Moses. It was under that old order that the children of Israel tithed to have the windows of heaven opened so they could receive a blessing.
In this book, contemporary ministers of the gospel who use that old order to extract tithes from their congregants are rebuked for missing the point, and glaringly so. Abraham’s tithe was not motivated by the desire for riches, and neither did it compel God to enrich him, because the man was already rich! What it simply did was to provoke God into intercepting the five kings that were coming to attack him.
What this then implies is that when we tithe, we are not trying to arm-twist God into blessing us with material riches. We are simply securing our lives and all that we have because, as argued by Myles, your tithe simply ensures divine interception against demonic attacks upon your life. He writes: “…tithing under the Order of Melchizedek is very different and much more honourable than the way tithing is taught today by many of the proponents of Malachi 3:8-12.
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Regrettably, both the revelation and attitude behind Abraham’s tithing are unmistakably missing in many of the popular methods of tithing. Understanding the Order of Melchizedek will both restore and upgrade the technology of tithing in the global Church.” (pp70).
Although many have gone on to argue that tithing was an Old Testament practice that has no place in the New Testament, in his other book, Tithing Under the Order of Melchizedek: The Return of the Lost Key (2013), Myles goes on to explain that — as demonstrated by Hebrews 7:8, “And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.” — tithing is still very much part of the spiritual technologies of the New Testament. This is about tithing from an inspired rather than regulated heart.
Failure to understand this revelation has perpetuated the practice of legalistic tithing within the church which, in many cases, has led to frustration and disappointment as the riches promised from the pulpit on the basis of tithing are hardly forthcoming.
This offering from Myles is indeed a handy tool not only for individual Christians, but churches as well as it would help them see where they have made mistakes and make necessary corrections, if they do have a teachable spirit.
